Resource definition drilling continues to progress successfully on bulk-mineable gold deposits in the San Francisco area discovered by Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. in December 2009. Earlier drilling focused on the South and North San Francisco zones which have expanded steadily as reported in news releases dated January 7, March 8 and June 17, 2010.
More recent drilling has discovered a further Central zone (see drill results below). Although the San Francisco area remains open, a geological model is in preparation to evaluate results and generate an initial resource estimate while exploration continues. San Francisco is one of four targets currently being drill tested at Paramount Gold's San Miguel project in northwestern Mexico.
Christopher Crupi, CEO of Paramount said "the San Francisco target area is opening up into a much larger system than we originally anticipated. We now see the potential for a much larger, shallow bulk-mineable gold resource with associated silver grades. Preliminary metallurgical tests from this area are also encouraging."
Paramount owns a 100% interest in the 188,000 hectare (465,000 acre) San Miguel Project in the Palmarejo District of northwest Mexico, making it the largest claim holder in this rapidly growing precious metals mining camp.
San Francisco is hosted by fractured and stockwork volcanic rocks and veins at intersections of north-northwest and northeast structures in an area 300 meters wide and at least 700 meters long. The zone remains open to the north, east and down dip with significant additional drilling required to fully delineate the zone. The most recent results are as follows:
*The true width of these intersections remains uncertain with geological modeling and additional drill testing required to fully establish the true widths of intervals.
Drilling at San Miguel continues with two rigs on several new targets and further results will be reported shortly. Results from the San Francisco area will be incorporated into a new San Miguel resource estimate expected in early 2011.
Exploration activities at San Miguel are being conducted by Paramount Gold de Mexico S.A de C.V personnel under the supervision of Bill Threlkeld a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. An ongoing and rigorous quality control/quality assurance protocol is being employed during the program including blank, duplicate and reference standards in every batch of assays. Cross-check analyses are being conducted at a second external laboratory on 10% of the samples. Samples are being assayed at ALS Chemex, Vancouver, B.C., using fire assay atomic adsorption methods for gold and aqua regia digestion ICP methods for other elements.
Source: Paramount Gold and Silver Corp.